Relaxation
by Sora532
Summary: After a hard day of training for his upcoming gym battle, Serena helps Ash unwind with a soothing massage.


**Disclaimer: I think it's pretty obvious that I don't own pokémon right? Although I can't complain with how they're running the anime so far. Have you SEEN XY 59?**

Serena, Clemont and Bonnie looked up in surprise when they heard a loud bang coming from the direction of the river where they knew Ash had been training. The group was en route to Anistar City where Ash was vying for his seventh Kalos gym badge. While Clemont and Bonnie weren't especially concerned as this was common practice in the life of Ash Ketchum, Serena still couldn't quite help herself.

"I'll go check on him," Serena volunteered as she stood up from her place at the table where she had been trying to come up with some new ideas she could use for her next pokémon showcase. She only needed to win one more in order to compete in the Master Class tournament.

Clemont and Bonnie had nodded before turning back to their respective activities as Serena grabbed a towel and headed for the river where she knew Ash would be training.

_Ash _Her heart raced at the thought of the raven haired Kanto trainer who had unknowingly stolen her heart with his kindness. The fact that he had taught her how to dream and had helped figure out what she had wanted to do with her life had only served make her love him even more. He'd even taken to helping her practice for her performances despite knowing full well that it'd take time away from training he could be doing for his gym battles. Whenever Serena pointed this out, Ash would just smile and laugh and remind her that friends help each other out.

_"I don't mind helping you, Serena," _Ash had told her more than a few times during her journey, _"don't forget that you've been helping me too so it's only fair that I return the favor right?"_

Her mind had flashed to several instances in which his bravery, or was it his recklessness, inspired her to stand up and fight for what she believed in even if it was difficult. Her mother would have been so proud especially give that she had managed to beat the former rhyhorn racer on skiddo.

Another bang snapped her out of her blissful thoughts while also prompting her to pick up her pace. She flat out ran to the river after that where the most peculiar sight met her sky blue eyes.

Oh what was the peculiar sight that met Serena's sky blue eyes?

A shirtless Ash sitting in the river panting in exhaustion and drenched although Serena couldn't whether it was just water or it had been mixed with sweat from where she was standing. She was too focused on trying to maintain her composure while processing the fact that Ash. _Her _Ash was shirtless!

_Take a deep breath _Serena thought, _it's just Ash with no shirt on. You've seen him without a shirt before, remember? This is hardly any different. _

"Serena, what are you doing here?" Ash's voice penetrated her thoughts, bringing her back to the real world. She spotted Ash staring at her curiously with an equally intrigued Pikachu at his side.

"We heard a loud bang back at camp so I decided to check and make sure that you were alright," Serena explained as her eyes drifted over the partially ruined forest, "what happened back there anyway?"

Ash laughed nervously as though just realizing how much damage he'd caused as she scanned the remnants of what used to be part of a forest. Pikachu let out a squeak of embarrassment as well at the sight of the damage. It was more than a little obvious that they had gone overboard.

"I guess we overdid some of our training," he scratched the back of nervously, "I wanted to help Greninja practice using dark pulse since the next gym has psychic types but I guess we overdid the strength of those two attacks and we lost control."

Serena raised an eyebrow. Surely Ash realized that she had a Pancham that _knew _dark pulse didn't he? If he just asked her, she would have been happy to have Pancham help them learn Dark Pulse. Plus she had Baltoy who happened to be a _psychic type. _She listened as he explained more of his training regimen in which he trained alongside his pokémon. Her eyes widened as he explained how he had used himself as the target along with a hapless dismembered tree trunk. That was definitely a new one her until she realized that he'd done something similar with Hawlucha back when he met the fighting type.

Shaking her head, Serena offered him a towel that he graciously accepted, drying himself off before tossing it around her neck. The aspiring pokémon performer shyly offered her hand which Ash graciously took and made to get to his feet.

Or at least that's what he would have done if his back wasn't in such excruciating pain.

"What's wrong?" Serena gasped.

"My back," Ash grimaced as he felt another shot of pain shoot through his back. It felt though a fighting type had used brick break on him repeatedly, "must have sprained it a little."

Serena's eyes widened in realization. He must have landed hard when the two attacks collided and sent him flying into the water.

"Hey Ash?" Serena started as an idea came to mind, "do you mind if I try something really quick?"

"Sure," was all Ash could get out before Serena leaned him against her stocking clad leg. His brown eyes widened in surprise but he soon relaxed as he felt soft hands on his shoulders.

"Just relax Ash," Serena murmured as she went to work, "just let me take care of things." Ash couldn't find it in himself to refuse her. Not that Serena would have given him a choice in the matter.

His skin felt surprisingly soft to the touch yet she could feel the muscles were as hard as they looked from where she was kneeling.

Blushing, Serena began gently pressing into his back with her fingertips while trying to stop the blood from traveling to her face. After several moments, she added her other hand as they glided up and down Ash's skin with his sighs of delight to egg her on. She couldn't help the small smile that stretched across her face as she continued her ministrations. She was delighted that she got to spend some time alone with Ash.

As Serena continued her ministrations, she felt something off about his right side. Curious, she ran her hand through the area again and it soon became obvious as to what it was.

A knot. She ran her hands through the area with her thumbs once more to make sure it was what she thought it was.

It was a huge knot. Serena's eyes were set in determination. This knot was going down if it was the last thing she did! Okay, maybe not quite that extreme but the point was that this knot was going down if she had anything to say about it.

With that, Serena proceeded to move her hands in faster circles around the areas where the knot seemed to preside while also pressing harder with her thumbs. She hoped this would be enough to loosen the tight muscles that were causing Ash pain.

It wasn't.

Serena had to bite back a growl. Clearly she was getting more into this as she rubbed and pressed more aggressively around the edges of the knot while searching for its center. She smiled when she found it and with both thumbs pressed down as hard as she could.

Ash gasped, sending shuddering convulsions throughout his entire torso before Serena felt Ash lean against her thigh.

It took all of Serena's self-restraint to not leap back in surprise. The results might have been less than desirable if she had. She watched Ash carefully for another moment before going back to work to finish off that pesky knot. She smiled to herself as she noticed that the knot had loosened considerably, allowing her to move in with her thumbs to work out the rest of the knot.

_How'd you like that?_ Serena couldn't help but think smugly as she felt the knot vanish beneath her fingers. It was clear that she'd taken a leaf from Ash's book with that one.

She was far from done however, as she soon found another knot and attacked it with the same vigor that she had with the first one.

Moving down Ash's back, Serena slid her hands down his sides before reaching the base of his spine. She gently pressed into his sides as eased the lightly tensed muscles back to relaxation. The young girl blinked when she heard Ash's deep breathing. Pausing to take a look as his face, Serena couldn't help the smile that spread on her face at the sight that met her eyes.

Ash was fast asleep.

Serena couldn't help but giggle softly at how cute he looked as he slept. It didn't help that he seemed to have a goofy smile on her face as he nuzzled closer to her leg.

Her heart raced and her face flushed a bright red as she moved back to his back where she noticed that his muscles seemed to have spasms as they contracted almost at random. Ash's goofy smile morphed into a pained grimace as he felt them.

Serena quickly went to work, gently pressing into his back. It took a fair bit of work before those muscle spasms finally stopped acting up and Ash's goofy smile returned.

Delighted that Ash was finally relaxed from what she could tell from running her hands all the way down the base of his back, Serena decided to move back up towards his neck and shoulders where she gently stroked the tensed muscles back to relaxation.

_I must be the luckiest girl alive _Serena smiled blissfully _to be able to run my hands all over—_she shook her head to banish the inappropriate thoughts that had taken to popping in her head.

_I gotta stop that _Serena mentally chastised. One of these days, it would come back to haunt her.

Serena brushed some of his hair aside to reach a higher point on his neck before pausing to feel the soft texture of raven black hair underneath her palms. It felt soft albeit a little wet from Ash's unplanned dip.

As if being shirtless hadn't been bad enough for the poor girl.

Shaking her head, Serena had decided that now that she was done with Ash's back, she could move towards his neck and maybe his arms. When she moved back to his neck, she caught a whiff of something. Curious, Serena leaned forward and took another sniff.

_He smells like pine _Serena realized after she managed to pick up while the smell had seemed familiar to the young girl, _it's so like Ash_. Serena couldn't help herself as she leaned closer and inhaled more deeply. The smell not only reminded her of her favorite time of the year but also of the sweet memories she had made with the currently asleep boy.

She shook her head for what felt like the millionth time as she finally deemed her work done. However, she found herself unwilling to stop. Her hands had enjoyed the soft and smooth sensation that was Ash's skin and hair under her hands.

_I want more_ Serena realized as she pulled herself closer to him while reveling in his gentle heat. _I need more_ she sighed happily as she nuzzled herself into his neck. Feeling daring, Serena had planted a couple of sweet kisses on his neck. She didn't know if she should have been disappointed or relieved that he hadn't reacted. However, before she could think more about it, her legs had starting aching by this point and Serena knew that her arms were a little sore no matter how much she enjoyed it.

"Pikachu!" the blonde looked when she caught sight of Ash's partner pointing to a tree close by. Serena's gaze turned to it as well and realized what Pikachu might have been suggesting.

Serena's heart raced yet again as she carefully guided Ash's head into her lap. Well she did that after removing his signature hat and placing it to the side.

_Ash is on my lap! _Serena couldn't help but gush excitedly. Never when she had left the campsite earlier that day would she imagine that she would be able to do any of what she had done that day. She smiled to herself as she found Pikachu had followed his trainer's lead and had settled to take a nap on his chest.

With a jolt, Serena suddenly wished that she could do something similar but perished the thought. She was happy that she had gotten a chance to spend some alone time with Ash. Even if said alone was spent massaging his aching back. She didn't mind. She was glad that _she _was the one to help him.

Serena smiled softly down at the pallet trainer who had taken to snuggling into her lap. She blushed at his actions and her face had gone from pink to a deep red when he had wrapped his arms tightly around her waist.

"Serena!"

"Where are you!"

Serena inwardly jumped in surprise at the sound of her two friends looking for her. She didn't have time to get away from her secret love before they caught sight of her and the situation that she was in.

She was fortunately that the blond siblings merely smiled at her before helping her carrying aspiring pokémon master and his partner back to the camp.

That night as everyone slept, Serena gazed up at the stars while smiling brightly.

_Thank you _she thought _for giving me a chance to show Ash how I feel about him._

Something told her that this would not be the last of the opportunities she would have and so she smiled as she crawled back into her tent and let the darkness of sleep overtake her.

**I hope this version of Serena is more to everyone's taste than the Holiday Surprises one. According to the reviews from Holiday Surprise…the beginning of that story was cute and people seemed to like it until I wrote Serena being axe crazy. Half of you seemed to enjoy it while the other half were either disturbed or terrified. To those of you who were disturbed, I apologize but it proved that my test was a success so it was all still good for me. Regardless, it seemed to have become my most popular one-shot. I wonder why...**

**Also, please feel free to check out some of my other stories.**


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